| Comments on the competition |
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| 1. |
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| I think entrants found this a very difficult word to clue. 7 stood out for me as the best. Surprised to see Bush featuring in quite a few clues. |
| 2. |
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| Good to see a record turnout of competitors having a go at a difficult clue word, and delivering a pretty sound set of clues overall. The main difficulty seemed to be putting the elements of definition and wordplay togther in a coherent and convincing whole. Some clues veered too far towards absurdity, such as 13, 16, 40 and 64, and others towards improbability, such as 12, 19, 30 and 51. The clues that appealed most were ones that painted a plausible picture with interesting wordplay. 2 has a whole string of goaty elements to fit with the 'nanny' definition. 7 avoids complexities with its straight anagram (though hijabs might be more the norm in Baku than babushkas). 20 is a neat little pen-picture, and 49 and 50 both find a political angle with misleading definitions. |
| 3. |
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One of the problems in judging this was deciding how precisely a Russian headscarf, or an elderly Russian lady, should be defined. Should it have a specific reference to Russia, or could it refer to any old lady or headscarf? My final decision was that those definitions that didn't point to Russia explicitly would be fine; however, if a definition (and not the surface) suggested a country other than Russia, I considered this too much of a logical leap. Example of this were 6, 19 and 30. 63 also fell into this category, I felt, but I must congratulate the contributor on the clue's surface. 7 was another that fell foul here, mostly because I can't be sure that Azeri people (speaking a Turkic language) would refer to such an item the same as a Russian (who speaks a Slavic language).
On the positive side, points to:
5: 35 – Gots the edge over 36 due to a smoother surface.
4: 36 – See above.
3: 29 – Clever defintions.
2: 62 – Indirect anagram is perhaps obscure, but it doesn't harm the clue much.
1: 38 – Good surface.
I should also give mentions to 4, 14, 18, 25 and 49, 53 and 54. 46 has an excellent surface, but I'm not sure Red is synonymous with Russia. |
| 4. |
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| I loved clues 11 and 13 and gave them 4 points each. I gave 5, 7 and 10 3, 2 and 2 points respectively. |
| 5. |
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Difficult word to clue, resulting in a number of rather strained efforts and several that were close but rejected for various reasons (37 was almost good but Chambers doesn't give the doll sense of babushka; likewise 5 but no need for 'initially', and 'deliver Hair cover' is a bit odd; in 24 'Barbara beginning' should be 'Barbara's beginning'; in 35 the definition is too vague).
1st= (4.5 points each): 4 ('not a' is a blemish where there are two a's), 54 (pity about the unnecessary exclam).
3rd= (2.5 points each): 9, 18
5th (1 point): 7 (an exotic Baku bash is rather an odd idea) |
| 6. |
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Nothing to set the world on fire this month, most of the more imaginative clues being marred by one or more of: unsoundness; slightly iffy wordplay or definition; stilted English; an unconvincing surface.
3 points:
20 This clue would have been a little fairer had, say, “from India” been added after “writer”, but is otherwise simple, neat and convincing . On “in”, see comments on 7 below.
2.5 points each:
18 This is neat, but composite anagrams that include a specific definition in this way seem somehow less satisfactory than those that achieve an &lit using “this”, “thus” or whatever to represent the clue-word.
42 Admirably concise and a good choice of definition to suit a convincing surface. It’s a pity, however, about the unnatural word order of “serve with” for “with serve” in the cryptic reading. A better solution might have been something like “Indian special’s hot? Then serve nan”
63 The best of the Abba offerings, though “hit” is on the borderline as an acceptable a.i.
2 points:
44 An ingenious solution to a reverse hidden for, in that context, a pretty unpromising set of letters. I see from a Google search that there has even been speculation that the Kazakh navy does in fact have submarines, unlikely as that might seem. Nevertheless, the surface is just a little strained and “having” would have been preferable to “has”.
1 point:
50 In the context of an otherwise promising surface (and original definition) , “soul” and even “embracing” seem forced and artificial. One wonders whether “to serve A(merican) President” might not have been exploited in some way. On “in”, see comments on 7 below.
0.5 point each:
7 Several things about this clue are excellent (concise, a good surface, a neat & appropriate anagram), but it is marred by the connector “for”; “in” would have been perfectly acceptable. In my book, SI for Definition is fine, but Definition for SI is not. Logically, it seems to me, the same principle should apply to in – as in 20 and 50, for instance – but SI in Definition is so widely accepted (eg, by Azed) that it would be unreasonable to penalize it. (Vice versa for from, of course.)
32 Another clue with much to recommend it (an original and convincing surface and, with one exception, deft wordplay), but “Hong-Kong-bound” – even with the extra hyphen! – doesn’t seem to me adequate to indicate that HK follows “airbus”; “airbus to Hong Kong” would have been more accurate; “carrier” to indicate BA, even in a surface referring to air travel, is a bit of a stretch too.
35 Admirably concise, a good anagram in a convincing surface, but, with regret, I finally decided that “Mother Russia” as a definition was too inaccurate, even with a question-mark, to earn more than minimum points. |
